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The General Assembly is expected to vote on it this week, perhaps as early as Wednesday. The resolution, co-sponsored by 38 other countries, calls upon the Iranian government to abide by its international obligations on human rights, Pettigrew said in a news release.It wants Iran to being about improvements in many areas, including independence of the judiciary, intimidation and persecution of defence lawyers and legal defenders, arbitrary detentions, freedom of expression, freedom of the media, the treatment of women, the treatment of persons belonging to religious and ethnic minorities and the execution of persons under age 18.
"We have carefully followed the situation in Iran during the past year and we believe there has been a marked deterioration in the government's performance in protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of its people," Pettigrew said.

"Positive developments in 2005 have been sparse and the lack of progress and action by the government of Iran is cause for serious concern."

Canada's relations with Iran have declined rapidly over the death of Montreal photojournalist Zahra Kazemi.

Kazemi died in an Iranian jail in July 2003, about three weeks after being detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during anti-government protests. Lawyers for her family say she was beaten to death.

Iranian authorities initially said she died of a stroke, but a commission appointed by Iran's president found she died of a fractured skull and brain hemorrhage caused by the impact of a hard object.

Iran's judiciary charged a low-ranking intelligence official, Reza Ahmadi, with unintentionally killing her during interrogation. Ahmadi was cleared of the charge at trial last July, with the court citing a lack of evidence.

Iran has rejected calls for a new inquiry and turned down requests for an international forensic team to examine the body.

Last December, Canada was a main sponsor of a UN resolution on the human rights situation in Iran. It called for the matter to be re-examined this fall at the General Assembly.

Last edited by cyrus on Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

It wants Iran to being about improvements in many areas, including independence of the judiciary, intimidation and persecution of defence lawyers and legal defenders, arbitrary detentions, freedom of expression, freedom of the media, the treatment of women, the treatment of persons belonging to religious and ethnic minorities and the execution of persons under age 18.
"We have carefully followed the situation in Iran during the past year and we believe there has been a marked deterioration in the government's performance in protecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of its people," Pettigrew said.

"Positive developments in 2005 have been sparse and the lack of progress and action by the government of Iran is cause for serious concern."
.

I seriously doubt Pettigrew would be making such statements if he couldn't back it up. Our civil service would have his head on a bureaucratic platter if he didn't.

I know its only the UN, but I hope it helps. Upside, it won't do the mullah much good having a Human Rights citation in their porfolio while they're trying to wedge their way in to the WTO.

And I hope it doesn't take too long. Domestically, I'm rooting for the opposition to force an election soon although I don't suppose the IRI can fillibuster this thing until Dec 8th. Or Nov 24th, for that matter.

To: Prime Minister Of Canada , U.S. President, EU Heads of States
The Right Honorable Jean Chretien:

CC: U.S. President, EU Heads of States, Heads of the world’s democratic states, General Secretary of the United Nations, The United Nation Commission for Humman Rights Special Rapporteur, U.S. Secretay of State, U.S. Congress, Senator Brownback, the European Parliament, Canada Foreign Minister, Amnesty International, International Journalism Group and Ms. Kazemi‘s Son, Mr. Stephan Hachemi

As you are aware, Ms. Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist, was arrested on June 23, 2003 and was savagely and barbarically beaten to death by Islamic regime officials. News agencies reported that Ms. Kazemi's body was buried on July 23, 2003, in Shiraz, Iran, contrary to the wishes of her family, and repeated formal requests from the Canadian government. "Don't send me your condolences when your government killed my mother, tortured her and still doesn't respond to my demands" - words that spoken by her son (for other detailed facts regarding the case please click on http://www.activistchat.com/reporter/index.html ).

The systematic use of torture and terror, as instruments of domestic and foreign policy employed by the Islamic Clerical regime in Tehran, is no doubt a crime against humanity. It is time for a collective and decisive action by the Canadian, G8 governments, and the international community to support the freedom-loving Iranian People, to put an end to such horrific crimes against humanity and to pave the way for freedom.

Today the Iranian people are demanding civil and political freedoms, separation of religion and government, equality and justice (especially
for the Iranian women), the immediate liberation of all political prisoners and Free Referendum.

With regard to the above, we the undersigned request your urgent help so that another human tragedy can be prevented before the Islamic regime causes another massacre in Iran. It is a regime that has executed over 120,000 political prisoners and freedom-loving Iranians in less than 2 decades. An Iran that is free from the current regime's rule will have countless benefits such as undercutting much of the funding for terrorist groups, paving the way for a more peaceful Middle East, and creating a region in which all inhabitants can participate in a system that is for the people and by the people. In this we ask that you respond to the following appeal:

- The continued legitimization of the Islamic regime in Iran must stop at once.
- Please give an ultimatum to the regime, urging it to step down peacefully because they have lost all legitimacy.
- Please ask the UN to immediately send a team to observe the situation in Iran.
- Please support the general demand of the Iranian people for a free referendum and elections observed by international organizations.

If the Islamic Clerical regime in Tehran does not step down peacefully please consider the following steps:
- Freeze All Assets Of The Regime.
- Discontinue Oil Exports From Iran.
- Expel The Islamic Clerical Regime From the UN.
- Expel The Islamic Regime's Ambassador From Canada and EU countries. Relations with the regime should be reduced to Consular level only, as to serve the consular needs of the Iranian people.

Since the tragedy on September 11th, one of the most tragic human rights violations of recent times, the world community must deliver a strong condemnation to such violators. To avoid another such tragedy we should not tolerate any human rights violations in any part of this planet by any group. Please consider the above requests from peace-loving and freedom-loving people of Planet Earth.

"Human beings are all members of one body.
They are created from the same essence.
When one member is in pain,
The others cannot rest.
If you do not care about the pain of others,
You do not deserve to be called a human being."

A Quote from Famous Persian Poet Saadi Shirazi
( 13th century Persian poet, from Shiraz the birthplace of Ms. Zahra Kazemi)

The General Assembly,
Guided by the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights,1 the International Covenants on Human Rights2 and other
international human rights instruments,
Reaffirming that all Member States have an obligation to promote and protect
human rights and fundamental freedoms and to fulfil the obligations they have
undertaken under the various international instruments in this field,
Mindful that the Islamic Republic of Iran is a party to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,2 the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights,2 the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination3 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,4
Recalling its previous resolutions on the subject, the most recent of which is
resolution 59/205 of 20 December 2004, and recalling also Commission on Human
Rights resolution 2001/17 of 20 April 2001,5
Noting the statements made by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran
on strengthening respect for human rights in the country and promoting the rule of
law,
__________________
1 Resolution 217 A (III).
2 Resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.
3 Resolution 2106 A (XX), annex.
4 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1577, No. 27531.
5 See Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, 2001, Supplement No. 3 (E/2001/23),
chap. II, sect. A.
2
A/C.3/60/L.45
1. Welcomes:
(a) The open invitation extended by the Government of the Islamic Republic
of Iran to all human rights thematic monitoring mechanisms in April 2002 and the
cooperation extended to the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights
during their visits;
(b) The visit of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights
on violence against women, its causes and consequences, to the Islamic Republic of
Iran from 29 January to 6 February 2005;
(c) The visit of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights
on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living to
the Islamic Republic of Iran from 19 July to 30 July 2005;
(d) The recommendation by the head of the judiciary of the Islamic Republic
of Iran to judges in December 2002 that they choose alternative punishment in cases
where the sentence of stoning would otherwise be imposed;
(e) The announcement by the head of the judiciary in April 2004 of the ban
on torture and the subsequent passage of related legislation by the Parliament, which
was approved by the Guardian Council in May 2004;
(f) The compliance by the Islamic Republic of Iran with its obligation, as
party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to deliver its presentation to the
Committee on the Rights of the Child in January 2005;
(g) The human rights dialogues between the Islamic Republic of Iran and a
number of countries, while regretting that a number of these have not met at regular
intervals lately;
(h) The cooperation with the United Nations agencies in developing
programmes in the field of human rights, good governance and the rule of law;
2. Expresses its serious concern at:
(a) The continuing harassment, intimidation and persecution of human rights
defenders, non-governmental organizations, political opponents, religious
dissenters, political reformists, journalists, parliamentarians, students, clerics,
academics and web bloggers, including through undue restrictions on the freedoms
of assembly, opinion and expression, the use of arbitrary arrest, targeted at both
individuals and their family members and the unjustified closure of newspapers and
blocking of Internet sites, as well as the absence of many necessary conditions for
free and fair elections, including by the arbitrary disqualification of large numbers
of prospective candidates, including all women, during the Presidential elections of
June 2005;
(b) The persistent failure to comply fully with international standards in the
administration of justice and, in particular, the absence of due process of law, the
refusal to provide fair and public hearings, the denial of the right to counsel and
access to counsel by those detained, the use of national security laws to deny human
rights, the harassment, intimidation and persecution of defence lawyers and legal
defenders, the lack of respect for internationally recognized safeguards, inter alia,
with respect to persons belonging to religious, ethnic or national minorities,
officially recognized or otherwise, the application of arbitrary prison sentences, and
the violation of the rights of detainees, including the systematic and arbitrary use of
3
A/C.3/60/L.45
prolonged solitary confinement, the failure to provide proper medical care to those
imprisoned and the arbitrary denial of contact between detainees and their family
members;
(c) The continuing use of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment such as flogging and amputations;
(d) The continued carrying out of public executions, including multiple
public executions and, on a large scale, other executions in the absence of respect
for internationally recognized safeguards, and, in particular, deplores the execution
of persons who were below 18 years of age at the time their offence was committed,
contrary to the obligations of the Islamic Republic of Iran under article 37 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child4 and article 6 of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights2 and in spite of the announcement of a moratorium on
juvenile executions;
(e) The continuing violence and discrimination against women and girls in
law and in practice, despite some minor legislative improvements, and the refusal of
the Guardian Council to take steps to address this systemic discrimination, noting in
this context its rejection, in August 2003, of the proposal of the elected parliament
to accede to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women;6
(f) The continuing discrimination, and other human rights violations against
persons belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, recognized or otherwise,
including Arabs, Kurds, Baluchi, Christians, Jews and Sunni Muslims, the
escalation and increased frequency of discrimination and other human rights
violations against the Bahá’ì, including cases of arbitrary arrest and detention, the
denial of freedom of religion or of publicly carrying out communal affairs, the
disregard of property rights, the destruction of sites of religious importance, the
suspension of social, educational and community-related activities and the denial of
access to higher education, employment, pensions, adequate housing and other
benefits and recent violent crackdowns on Kurds;
3. Calls upon the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran:
(a) To ensure full respect for the rights to freedom of assembly, opinion and
expression, and the right to take part in the conduct of public affairs in accordance
with its obligations under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights
and, in particular, to end the harassment, intimidation and persecution of political
opponents and human rights defenders, including by releasing people imprisoned
arbitrarily or on the basis of their political views;
(b) To ensure full respect for the right to due process of law, including the
right to counsel and access to counsel by those detained, in criminal justice
proceedings and in particular, to ensure a fair and public hearing by a competent,
independent and impartial tribunal established by law, to end harassment,
intimidation and persecution of defence lawyers and legal defenders and to ensure
equality before the law and the equal protection of the law without any
discrimination in all instances, including for members of religious, ethnic, linguistic
or other minority groups, officially recognized or otherwise;
__________________
6 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1249, No. 20378.
4
A/C.3/60/L.45
(c) To eliminate, in law and in practice, the use of torture and cruel, inhuman
or other degrading treatment or punishment such as amputations and flogging, to
end impunity for violations of human rights that constitute crimes by bringing the
perpetrators to justice in accordance with international standards and, as proposed
by the elected Iranian parliament, to accede to the Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;7
(d) To abolish public executions and other executions carried out in the
absence of respect for internationally recognized safeguards, in particular
executions for persons who, at the time of their offence, were under the age of 18,
the latter of which was called for by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its
report of January 2005, and to uphold the moratorium on executions by stoning and
to introduce this moratorium as law as a first step towards the abolition of this
punishment;
(e) To eliminate, in law or in practice, all forms of discrimination and
violence against women and girls and, as proposed by the elected Iranian
Parliament, to accede to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women;8
(f) To eliminate, in law or in practice, all forms of discrimination based on
religious, ethnic or linguistic grounds, and other human rights violations against
persons belonging to minorities, including Arabs, Kurds, Baluchi, Christians, Jews,
Sunni Muslims and the Bahá’ì, and to address this matter in an open manner, with
the full participation of the minorities themselves, to otherwise ensure full respect
for the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief of all persons, and
to implement the 1996 report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on
Human Rights on religious intolerance, which recommended ways the Islamic
Republic of Iran could emancipate the Bahá’ì community;
4. Encourages the thematic mechanisms of the Commission on Human
Rights, inter alia, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and
lawyers, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, the Special
Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and
expression, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the situation of
human rights defenders and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances, to visit or otherwise continue their work to improve the human
rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and urges the Government of the
Islamic Republic of Iran to cooperate with these special mechanisms and to
illustrate how their subsequent recommendations have been addressed, including
those of special procedures that have visited in the past twelve months;
5. Decides to continue its examination of the situation of human rights in
the Islamic Republic of Iran at its sixty-first session, under the agenda item entitled
“Human rights questions”, in the light of additional elements provided by the
Commission on Human Rights.
__________________
7 Ibid., vol. 1465, No. 24841.
8 Ibid., vol. 1249, No. 20378.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said on Saturday Canadian-sponsored resolution with UN General Assembly Third Committee against Iran's human rights record was political.

"Politicization of human rights formed centerpiece of the West's approach toward human rights and such a selfish approach threatens the basis of human rights entirely at the international community," Asefi said.

He said the resolution against Iran was the outcome of Canadian efforts to distort realities and in reaction to a single issue which happened in Iran.

"This resolution is regarded as part of efforts to divert public opinion. Its contents have nothing to do with real human rights situation of Iran," he said.

Canada is not in a position to make judgment on human rights, he said, adding the Canadian representative's speech on amendment to procedure of the United Nations human rights commission was an effort to restructure the body in line with political goals of Canada.

"The western countries use human rights for political gains and their discriminatory approach toward human rights have been disclosed so far."
Asefi said that Iran will never yield to political pressure adding that unfortunately, the topic of human rights is usually being abused for political reasons to the extent that the General Assembly had decided to raise objection to extreme politicization of human rights.